UberNote...A Better, Digital Napkin

The note taking newbie on the Web block, UberNote, is ready for you to sign up and start making online grocery lists.

Notes, notes, notes. My life is filled with them, and it's only in the last few years they stopped taking the form of Post-its™, torn bits of printer paper, stray empty corners of phone book pages, crumpled napkins at lunch, and that one time, a Kleenex™ (the details are not important).

I say "like" because UberNote is an untested newbie on the note-taking scene. Anyone can sign up for a free account and fill and UberNote page with an unlimited number of grocery list and some other note types. It suggest password lists, for example, but I'm not sure that's a smart move on any online service (UberNote's privacy policy states "Only under extreme circumstances will any notes stored in UberNote be read by an employee.") Of course, the usefulness of an online grocery list only goes so far until the launch of a mobile version so you can remain paperless even in the cereal aisle.

There's nothing in UberNote you can't replicate with Google Docs or tens of other online word processors, or better yet, the notebook feature at Zoho. However, UberNote does seem to do a good job of keeping things readily available and easy to find, much like its offline competition Microsoft OneNote 2007 ($99.95) or the shareware EverNote ($19.95 for now, regular is $49.95), both only for Windows. However, UberNote won't ever be bogged down with all the hand-writing recognition stuff that those two require, and works on any browser.

It even has the ability to handle graphics--or at least the example pages could handle them. I couldn't find a command to let me insert even a simple GIF. Obviously, there are kinks to work out, but you can still type up that list of cereal you need at any time.

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 20 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works from his home in Ithaca, NY.
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